In the Northeast, the black-legged ticks (Ixodes scapularis) that spread Lyme disease also infect people with other maladies, among them anaplasmosis, babesiosis, and – as a new paper in the journal Parasites and Vectors reports – Powassan encephalitis.

The New Yorker reports on the controversy surrounding the diagnosis and treatment of Lyme disease. Columnist Michael Specter interviewed Cary disease ecologist Richard Ostfeld about the ecology of ticks and the spread of the disease.

In the Housatonic River, zebra mussels -- non-native bivalves that can move into a water body and just dominate it -- were found in 2009 in Massachusetts and in 2010 in Connecticut at Lake Lillinonah and Lake Zoar.

Health officials and researchers are scratching their heads, wondering whether there will be a repeat this summer of last year's spike in the West Nile virus, a potentially fatal illness that mosquitoes transmit.

This week the Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies is hosting eighteen leaders in lake science. They hail from around the world, including Australia, New Zealand, Switzerland, Hungary, Ireland, Taiwan, Argentina, Canada, Ireland, and China.

Cary scientists David Strayer and Emma Rosi-Marshall delivered expert testimony at a May 5, 2013 congressional briefing that highlighted problems with aquatic invasive species and “natural infrastructure” solutions. The briefing took place on Capitol Hill as the U.S. Senate debated the Water Resources Development Act.

Richard S. Ostfeld, a disease ecologist specializing in Lyme disease and West Nile Virus, said while "large advances have been made even with rather paltry funding," there needs to be "rapid improvements," such as better diagnostics for early-stage Lyme.

Some of my friends and relatives don't believe in climate change, so I regularly get emails containing evidence that climate change isn't real. The "evidence" contained in these emails usually falls into one of two categories.

Many of us eagerly anticipate summer, when fishing, boating and swimming can happen at a favorite lake. This year, though, there may also be a bit of trepidation — what lies ahead for Lake Auburn? Will we see another fish kill?